M Shield

Out of Class Exercise (16th March 2009)

Monday, March 16th, 2009 Posted in About Me, BAIMP, Humour, University

For a seminar on the 10th March, we have been set an out of class exercise of 300 words to be posted up on the blog to be displayed in the 5pm lecture on the 16th… Here is the question set in brief:

We’d like you to try some identity tourism.  Choose an ‘identity’ which
you consider alien to your own: perhaps a different gender; but perhaps
also a different racial or ethnic group than your own; maybe even a
different species!

Find out more about this identity/role.  What is their life like?  How
do they see the world?  What are their concerns?  What are they doing
now?

When you’ve explored some of these background issues, we’d like you to
write (about 300) words from the point of view of your chosen identity,
and post it on your blog. We’ll use the work you do for this in next week’s IMT lecture (Folk Cultures / Global Cultures).

Now here is my contribution:

The Life of an Anthro

The life of an anthropomorphic is an interesting one. Being half animal half human has both advantages and disadvantages. Having characteristic traits of both humans and an animal allows you to expand your view on life. Lets start with the basics. As an ‘Anthro’ you have physical traits of both species combined together.

The average anthro usually looks more animal than human. For example, you have the animal ears, fur and tail. The face usually consists of a muzzle (with or without whiskers depending on the species), animalistic ears and of course fur. The body however has quite a few human features. Anthro’s tend to walk upright on the back legs like humans and often have paws as hands, though usually feature opposable thumbs help with holding objects. Further down the body you have the animal tail. Possibly helping with balance, it can also be used for helping show expression or emotion. The feet are again, usually paws however the leg can either be digitigrade (imagine a curved dogleg) or plantigrade (human legs where you walk on the soles on the ground).

Anthro’s tend to be more connected to nature. They base their lives on instincts, and if they are not careful, they can let their instincts control them. For example, a deer anthro could jump or bolt at the slightest movement made by other objects, or canine anthro’s chase after Frisbees. Having animal features allows them to extend human traits, such as a canine’s sense of smell for detecting fear or mood of a person.

Though quite often, anthro’s are considered to be genetic ‘mutations’ and go against the laws of nature. Some beings become scared of the unknown and so sometimes anthro’s can be regarded as a threat to society. But, if anything, anthropomorphic beings, being connected more to nature, tend to have more unconditional love for the things around them.

I could go on, but I am limited to 300 words. So there you have it. Process it how you like. I’d like to hear some of your views on the subject.

Tags: an, anthro, anthropamorphic, canine, class, exercise, furry, human, media, of, out, paws, tail, Uni Life, University

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